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Wednesday, June 4, 2008

WFMW

This week's WFMW has a theme! Very exciting. Let's talk about how to keep the kids busy and entertained during the summer. Well. Where to begin? We definitely do as many outdoor activities as possible to let the precious angels run off plenty of energy to keep that school year bedtime in place. Momma loves her quiet evenings. Here are some outdoor activity ideas:

1. Get colored sand from Wal-Mart. It is awesome and for some reason keeps the kids even more occupied than regular sand. 2. Let the kids plant flowers or plants in the garden. Give them a plant or two, small trowel, and have at it. Don't worry about it being perfect. The fact that they are busy and not whining is what's important. 3. Let them play with the hose in their clothes. (What is this? Dr. Seuss Wednesday?) They will think you are mother of the year and stay out of your hair for awhile while you catch up on your reading. 4. Kids are fascinated by everything (well, little kids anyway.) Let them try to find the most unusual rocks from the driveway or landscaping rock. Let them make a little collection. Then, if you are feeling brave, break out the fingerpaints and let them paint their rocks. 5. If the kids are young enough, you can make a game out of most anything. Who can pick the most weeds? Pick up the most sticks? Run the fastest? Jump the farthest? Make the best margarita? Wait...that's not right.

If you have to move things indoors (like for instance if you live in Indiana and it NEVER quits raining) you can still have fun without the TV. Here are some indoor activity ideas:

1. Play-Doh on baking dishes. Put all the Play-Doh and assorted tools on a deep baking dish and let them go to town. 2. For truck loving boys, try putting uncooked rice in a deep baking dish and let them use their little loaders and dump trucks in it. 3. Buy a piece of tile/shower board from your local home improvement store for about $10.00. Cut it to size and affix it somewhere in the house. We have a goofy little counter in our laundry area. We cut a piece to size, attached it to the wall, and let the kids use dry erase markers. It even covers up the actual marker on the wall. It's a win-win situation. 4. Turn the chairs, recliners, even the loveseat over, cover them with blankets and let the kids play in the "fort." This could free up hours for you to blog, read, blog, laundry, blog, clean, or even blog. 5. Have an indoor picnic. This is very popular at our house. Break out the blankets and lunch trays in the living room in front of your favorite Dora or John Deere movie. Follow lunch up with a popsicle and maybe an indoor game of Frisbee or Nerf football.

I really like your blog. I LOVED the chunky dunking post - had me cracking up! When my brother, sister, and I were out of school for summer, we knew that if we told mom we were bored she would assign housework for us to do. The LAST thing we wanted to do was sweep, vacuum, and clean the bathroom!

I came this way via SITS, this morning. You have the BEST ideas! And I love your About Me--we share a lot of things in common! I too LOVE office supplies, organizing (although my follow through on that leaves much to be desired), purses with matching wallets and starbucks (my blog is called Heavy on the Caffeine, lol.)

I hope you get lots of new readers--you definitely have soem great things to share!

The rice in the baking dish for cars/trucks is a FANTASTIC idea! I have a three year old who will find hours of entertainment from this one!I've heard great things about the colored sand from Wal-Mart...I need to find a spot for it in my yard ;)We have a small room under our stairs where we keep the kids' toys - I painted one wall with chalkboard paint...keeps em busy for hours in there on rainy days ;)Thanks for the tips!!

I love all of your ideas! My boys would turn it into something not so fun, and I would have to drink 2bottles of wine a day and then my husband would be mad cuz I spent too much money on mommy time outs!

I really need to do the rice idea for my kids. They would really enjoy this, but isn't there supposed to be a rice shortage or was that just news propaganda I saw on tv?? Anywho, great blog. Thanks for letting my come and SITS for awhile!!

I used to save boxes in the shed all winter and then about three weeks into summer vacation (mom I'M BORED) because they wouldn't get a job and were to young to be let out on their own, I dumped the boxes in the back yard for them to play fort or castle, cave or jail...it would occupy them for three days or until the boxes refused to stand alone (or ran away for self protection)!Sandipsgreat post and blog

Love it, love it, love it! I'd have to look up connoisseur as well...I actually did just so I could post it here! I'll need that bottle of wine to go with the whines when my keeps are back from camp! Great blog!

Thanks everybody for making my day with all the comments. I will check out all your blogs soon (if I haven't already!)A couple comments from me:Debbie-You lose pretty much everything except your pictures. You can play with it and preview and nothing will be changed/lost until you actually save it.Caroline-I hear ya. My parents used to disconnect cable TV over the summer to keep our butts off the couch. The horror!Christy-We sound like sisters!Carrie-Have I smelled Scotch tape? I am a teacher with a sick love for office supplies. Hell yeah I've smelled tape! :)Shanna-I've wondered about the chalk paint. I might have to give it a try.Merrie-A stay at home dad? Wow! I know NO man who could do such a thing. Good for you! And him!Melissa-Thanks for the A+ You know how to make a teacher swoon!Strawberry Blonde-Hadn't heard about the rice shortage. But I did hear bananas would be "extinct" in seven years. Who knows what to believe?!Sandi-Thanks for the box idea! My kids would love it!I am so giddy to see all the mommy wine drinkers. Woo hoo!

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I am a mom, wife, and teacher.
I love office supplies.
I love organizing things.
I love purses with matching wallets.
I love Starbucks.
I hate grading papers.
I hate sad stories on the news, so I don't watch.